Taxman wake-up 'sleeping' beauty Anushka

Hyderabad: In the popular fairytale Sleeping beauty, the girl is awakened by Prince Charming. But for mana Tollywood beauty Anushka, it was a bit of a rude awakening. On Wednesday morning, the actress, who was fast asleep, was woken up by a team of Income Tax sleuths at her residence in Woods Apartments, Jubilee Hills.

She was not the only one to be greeted by the taxman. Simultaneous raids were conducted on the houses of actor Akkineni Nagarjuna and his brother Venkat, actor Ravi Teja and producer D Shiva Prasad Reddy. Several incriminating documents were reportedly seized during the searches. 'Some documents relating to properties and investments have been seized and they are under scrutiny. It will take some time before we can go through them,' was all that a senior IT official would reveal.

As the news of the raids spread, the media as well as commoners gathered outside Anushka's residence hoping to catch a glimpse of the damsel in distress. Her security guard kept them at bay with an authoritative, 'andar jana mana hai.' But the actress was reportedly not in the least perturbed. Though the sleuths 'interrupted' her sleep, she soon sank back into her bed, that too for a good part of the day. 'Anushka is inside the house when the searches were conducted. She is right now sleeping,' Jay Kumar, an IT official, informed the eager media.

'The sleuths are conducting searches inside Anushka's residence. They have closed the doors,' said M Ravi, another official, sipping tea at a nearby tea stall. The I-T officials kept going in and out of her house and with the crowds swelling, the Jubilee Hills police sent a team to the place to pre-empt any trouble.

Anushka's co-star in Ragada, Nagarjuna, also had to face the music but for only a brief while. Nagarjuna's brother Venkat was not spared either. It is learnt that the I-T officials woke up Ravi Teja too, when he was sleeping at his residence and later brought him to his office in Srinagar Colony. Eyewitnesses said Ravi Teja was in his night dress when he was brought to his office. Ravi Teja's brother Bharat, appearing panicky, was seen at Ravi Teja's house talking endlessly over the mobile phone.

The one common factor in the raids was that the movies of the actors concerned had either been released recently or were slated for release soon. With this, other actors like Pawan Kayan and NTR Jr are on the tenterhooks as their movies are set for release in the next few days.